By IANS,
Shillong : A top leader of the outlawed Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) has been detained in Bangladesh and is likely to be handed over to India soon, a top police official said here Monday.
Briansim Marak, the so-called foreign secretary of the rebel outfit, was in Bangladesh for the past two years to escape arrest in India.
“We have received inputs that he (Marak) has been detained in Bangladesh,” Meghalaya Director General of Police Kulbir Krishan told IANS.
Another top police official said that Marak, alias Bikdot Nikjang, who claims to be fighting for a separate Garoland in the western part of Meghalaya, was among the 10-15 tribal Garo youths, who were arrested by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) commandos from the Madhupur area in Tangail district of Bangladesh Friday (Dec 14).
He said the arrested GNLA rebel would be handed over to India.
A union home ministry official, however, said that they have not received any official confirmation on Marak’s detention.
“We are yet to get an official confirmation,” Shambhu Singh, joint secretary (northeast) in the union home ministry, told IANS.
Marak is the second top leader of the GNLA to be detained in Bangladesh after Champion R. Sangma, the outfit’s chief, was held by RAB commandos in a hideout at Haluaghat in Bangladesh’s Mymensingh district Nov 23, 2011.
On July 30, Champion R. Sangma was arrested from the Meghalaya’s Umkrem Pyrwdiwah area near the India-Bangladesh after he was pushed back to India by Bangladesh authorities.
Champion, a former deputy superintendent of police, deserted the Meghalaya Police and floated the GNLA due to alleged harassment by his seniors, is facing charges under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
The outfit has forged alliances with Bangladesh-based rebel group A’chik Special Dragon Party, the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB).
Meghalaya shares a 443-km border with Bangladesh, part of which is porous, hilly and unfenced and prone to frequent infiltration.
GNLA rebels, who number around 200, unleashed a reign of terror in the five impoverished districts of Garo Hills in the last two years and killed over 35 people, including security personnel and abducted more than 50 people for ransom.